Lance and Cheryl Go to Hawaii, Day 1 (September 22, 2013): Kona-Kailua, HI

Our last 'real' vacation precedes the birth of this blog.  Sure, we've traveled.  We've visited friends and family, we've traveled to interesting places for conferences (I'm looking at you Australia, 2006), we've even done a few fun weekends that *might* count as mini-vacations (Hello, Disneyland!), but we haven't hopped on an airplane and went somewhere fun JUST as a vacation since 2005, and we certainly haven't done it without the kids.  

We LOVE our kids, but we just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and they're getting old enough where we can leave them in the reliable care of their Grammie (We can't thank you enough, Mom!!) for a week.  So we decided that a second honeymoon in Hawaii was in order.  Neither of us had ever been there, and September was a good time to go.

It was a little weird being in an airport and not having to deal with children.  Our kids are generally good travelers, but they ARE kids, and need to pee at inopportune times or get hungry or bored, or...  Anyway, we got on an airplane, and unlike most airlines, Hawaiian still feeds people at the appropriate meal times in coach, so we also didn't have to worry about buying food in the airport to take on or purchasing an in-flight meal (or doing all of this when a kid you've just given food to insists that they're hungry right at that very second).

We're on a plane and no one is vomiting on me!  And no one needs to be entertained.

 As you'll soon see, Lance is perhaps the best vacation planner on the planet.  We landed, got lei'd, got our rental car, and checked in at Courtyard King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel for our first night, with plenty of time to settle in and get freshened up for the luau, which featured an open bar just 2 hours after arriving.

View from our Balcony.

The luau itself was great!  I made an angelfish out of palms to take home to the boys,


we drank mai tais,












watched the imu ceremony (where they take the pig out of the underground oven),













and then watched the royal court arrive to begin the luau.

The food was delicious and plentiful and varied.  It was even more impressive because it was a large buffet.

I could list all the food, but I'm just going to link you to the menu, which is easier!  For the Hawaiian foodies out there, there was a deliciously spicy kona-style poke in the lower left of the plate, which got a little buried in the lomi lomi salmon.

The first of many "food porn" pictures.

 Desert was yummy too, with chocolate cake, coconut pudding and pineapple cake!

As we ate, we were entertained with a variety of traditional polynesian dances, spanning from Hawaii to Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, and New Zealand.

We made sure to take a picture of the Samoan Fire Knife Dancer for RJ and Logan since they love the fire dancer from Lilo and Stitch.

It was a fabulous beginning to our Hawaiian Adventure!

For more pictures of day 1, click here.